Bottling... finally!

I'm just getting ready to bottle for the first time using corks. How do you go about softening them. I've herd everything from steaming to soaking and boiling.

Any help would be great

 

I've never heard of the need to soften them, unless you bought corks that are a little too large for your bottle or maybe synthetic corks? Are you using a hand or bench corker? I normally sanitize the corks a little and then cork, but I used real corks.

Just read that dropping them in hot water 5-10 minutes is good for synthetic.

 

They are real corks (non synthetic). I think the corks are for 3/4" bottles and they look to be about 1" in diameter. I didn't know corks come in different sizes.

 

Do you have a corker or are you looking to "soften" them to make it easier to somehow pound them into the bottles? Either way, rather than use a lot of space here repeating the information, here's a good article that I think will completely answer your question ----> http://www.eckraus.com/wine-making-corking.html

 

I steamed the corks for 5 minutes. By the time I corked the 4th bottle the corks were already stiffening up again so I soaked the remaining corks in hot water pulling them out only when I needed them. This seems to have worked. Oh and fyi I'm using a hand held corker.

 

I soak in 1 step for an hour or so and they go in pretty easy with a double arm corker. No idea what they're actually called. Then let them sit upright for a day or so and after that they're gtg.